The advantages of customer assembled or "knock-down" furniture have long been recognized. Such furniture can generally be sold at a reduced price due to lower manufacturing and transportation costs. The savings arise principally from elimination of factory assembly and substantially reduced shipping volumes. The purchaser himself may wish to disassemble the furniture periodically when moving from one locale to another.
Previous knock-down systems suffer from several disadvantages, including complexity, multiplicity of parts, lack of flexibility, visible connectors or unfinished edges appearing on the assembled product detracting from its aesthetic appeal and obviously marking it as knock-down furniture.